Beginning immediately, I will be shutting down my physical products operations. I will be selling out my inventory. The stuff that sells well will be sold at regular retail. Everything else will be discounted to move quickly. I plan to have most of my inventory liquidated by the end of January. What’s left will go on eBay. By the end of December, the present incarnation of Ten Foot Table will be gone.

What will I do? I plan to write – both e-books and blogging. I also plan to do affiliate marketing. This kind of work can happen in the fringe hours after God, family, and my regular job. I think I will have a lot to offer by going in this new direction. Mostly for my wife and children.

I am not down about this decision. In fact, I am at peace with it. It is the right thing to do. I will have better focus. It is in God’s will for my life.

There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing: there is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches. – Proverbs 13:7 (KJV)

I have chosen to make shipping a positive experience for my customers. Whether they buy through my eBay store or website, I focus on good packaging and fast shipping. I use USPS Priority Mail to do both. The Priority Mail boxes are both free and good looking. You can’t help but give a positive impression with these red, white and blue boxes when compared to the normal brown. Priority Mail also helps with fast shipping. You can ship anywhere in the U.S. in two to three days. With online purchase of postage you get a discount plus a tracking number. (Your customers feel better about their order when they get a tracking number.)

While Priority Mail helps with fast shipping, that is only half of the equation. I know that I have been frustrated by ordering online, then waiting days until the order ships. I make it a point to ship my orders out the very next day. I pack the items carefully and make sure the box is securely closed. (I also include some free product samples as a bonus.) I then order Carrier Pickup and wait for the mailman to pick up my packages.

Using these tips, you can give your customers a positive, fast shipping experience and improve the image of your online business.

So I searched for a solution and found a great free tool called AUCTIONFB. This tool displays a simple badge that shows your feedback rating, eBay user name, feedback score, and the date it was last verified. It works with several different eBay locales and has ten different color options. There is a registration process, but this is necessary. The tool needs to know your eBay user name and you also need an account so you can change settings later.

I added the widget to my right sidebar so that it displays below my other badges of trust. If you like, click over to Ten Foot Table and see how it looks.

1. Domain Name – I get and manage my domains through the World’s Largest Registrar – GoDaddy.com. I have found their pricing and management options to be the best. I recommend that you do not buy your domain through a hosting company. This is one thing you don’t want to intermingle. You can read about my trouble with one domain, here.
2. Website Hosting – I host all my domains with AlphaOne Techonology. Once again, I like having my hosting all in one spot. It simplifies management of my websites. I have found their support to be responsive and effective. They also took care of setting up the secure certificate for my store. This is needed to ensure security and privacy for my customers.
3. Shopping Cart – I researched and tried a lot of different shopping carts and settled on X-Cart. It is a lot like OS-Commerce, but is supported by both Qualiteam (the software company), an active user’s forum, and third party vendors. Qualiteam is based in Russia, but I have found their support to be excellent.
4. Products – You will need to decide what products or services to sell online. Once that is done, setup agreements to purchase those products wholesale. You will then need to set your prices and enter product information into your shopping cart solution.
5. Business Formation – I recommend that you setup your online business entity in such a way that your personal assets are protected. I used Biz Filings to setup my corporation. I found their offering to be complete and their prices to be very competetive.
6. Credit Card Processing – No matter what you do online, you will need a way to accept payment. I use two avenues, PayPal and Echo. I used Echo. I use Echo to process Visa and Mastercard. They have an application process that they help you through. It is involved, but not difficult. When you are done, you will be able to accept credit cards on your website, including Yahoo Stores if you decide to go that route. PayPal is easier and quicker to get going. Accept Payments Online with PayPal. Fast, Easy & Secure. Sign Up Now!

That should get you going on the road to e-commerce success with an on-line store. If you are interested in checking out my store, you can go to www.tenfoottable.com.

Once you are ready to start selling, begin by looking around your home for things to sell. So many of us have accumulated stuff that we no longer need or use. This is a great source of items to sell. I can tell you for certain that you will get more for your stuff on eBay than you will in a garage sale. You will need a digital camera to take pictures of the items you are selling. Practice so you can get good pictures. The quality of the pictures you take of your auction items will greatly affect the selling price of that item.

After you have had success selling your own stuff, then you can go out and find other things to sell. I use several methods to find items to sell.

1. Buy Wholesale – As I mentioned in Part 1 of this series, I run an eBay store. In it I sell several items that I buy wholesale and then retail on eBay. This is easy to do, just contact the manufacturer or distributor of the products you want to sell, open up an account with them and purchase your products. Be sure to research actual selling prices on eBay so you are certain that you can retail your chosen products at a profit.
2. Garage Sales – My wife and children love to go to garage sales. I just tell them what kind of items I like to sell on eBay and they find me bargains while they are garage sailing! It works out really good. With this approach, I am selling other people’s stuff on eBay. As I mentioned in method #1, I can sell something on eBay for more than I can in a garage sale. This method of finding items has an automatic profit margin. Here is an ebook offer that will help you profit on eBay from garage sales.
3. Auctions and Estate Sales – I like to go to public auctions to find items to sell on eBay. These are usually advertised in the local want ads. When I go to an auction, I am looking for bargains. Here is where you need to be careful. You also need to understand your market. It is real easy to pay too much for something at an auction. I am looking for quality bargains. I especially like buying $1 boxes at the end of the auction. A lot of people have left already and quite often I find fantastic bargains hidden in a box that sells for one or two dollars.

With the information above, and by reading up on the subject, you should be ready to start selling on eBay!

This post is about eBay Stores. I have been buying and selling on eBay for nearly four years now. Although, I didn’t get serious about my eBay business until about a year ago. I am not yet a Power Seller, but I have had good success with my eBay store, Ten Foot Table. An eBay store is an ideal way to start selling on the internet, as it is easy to set up and eBay has taken care of all the details of running an e-commerce site. Payments are handled securely through PayPal. Start selling online today! Open a storefront on eBay!